Santa Fe Trail

For other uses, see Santa Fe Trail (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Santa Fe Rail Trail or Santa Fe River Trail.
Santa Fe Trail

Map of the Santa Fe Trail

Location Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado
Established 1822
Governing body National Park Service
Website Santa Fe National Historic Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Santa Fe was near the end of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro which carried trade from Mexico City.

The route skirted the northern edge and crossed the north-western corner of Comancheria, the territory of the Comanches, who demanded compensation for granting passage to the trail, and represented another market for American traders. Comanche raiding farther south in Mexico isolated New Mexico, making it more dependent on the American trade, and provided the Comanches with a steady supply of horses for sale. By the 1840s trail traffic along the Arkansas Valley was so heavy that bison herds could not reach important seasonal grazing land, contributing to their collapse which in turn hastened the decline of Comanche power in the region. [1]

The Trail was used as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War.[2]

After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest ending the Mexican–American War, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through the entire length of Kansas, the southeast corner of Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated as the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway.

History

Arrival of the caravan at Santa Fe, lithograph published c.1844
A rest stop along the Santa Fe Trail.
Connections along the Santa Fe Railroad—Map shows the principal regular stops on the AT&SF mainline, including such famous cattle drive destinations as Dodge City. It is no accident that most of those Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexican towns were also first serviced by the Santa Fe Trail.

The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Spaniards at the end of the 18th century and used afterwards by the Americans in the 19th century, crossing the southwest of North America connecting Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The French explorer Pedro Vial pioneered the route in 1792 and the Santa Fe Trail was established in 1821 to take advantage of new trade opportunities with Mexico which had just won independence from Spain in the Mexican War of Independence. The trail was used to haul manufactured goods from the state of Missouri in the United States to Santa Fe, which was in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Mexico.[3]

The wagon trains followed various emigrant trails to points west as people responded to opportunity to hold free land, and the political philosophy of Manifest Destiny dominated national political discussions. Connecting the riverboat port cities and their wagon train outfitters to the destinations, the trail was a fundamentally important trade route, carrying manufactured products from the central plains of United States to the trail head towns St. Joseph and Independence, Missouri. In the 1820s–30s, it was also sporadically important in the reverse trade, carrying foods and supplies to the fur trappers and mountain men opening the remote Northwest, esp. in the Interior Northwest: Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana—connecting via mule trail (trapper's trails) to points north to supply the lucrative overland fur trade.

North–South trade

Santa Fe was near the northern terminus of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which led overland from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico.

This limited trade traffic transited the site that would become Fort Bent in Colorado (directly on the Santa Fe Trail) and the short-lived trading fort (name, owner, management, dates all uncertain) that sat astride the Trapper's Trail and Oregon Trail junction point. This post was only eight miles east of the site of Fort John (now Ft. Laramie) (ca. 1833) on what became the Oregon Trail (1832–34).[4] The lost fort was on the same site where Fort Bernard was later founded (1866) in the eastern Oregon Country (Wyoming). That Fort Bernard ran cargo mule trains to the Santa Fe is historically certain. The earlier Fort and its traders are less so, and that gives weight that they might have been independents, and not employees of the large fur companies. Regardless of the lack of explicit documents, it is known the light trading with Mexico used the trail and Trapper's Trail.

The importance of Santa Fe

The Republic of Texas map showing lands claimed by Texas after 1836 and present-day outline of New Mexico on the boundaries of 1836–1845.

In 1825 the merchant Manuel Escudero of Chihuahua was commissioned by New Mexico governor Bartolome Baca to negotiate in Washington for opening U.S. borders to traders from Mexico. Beginning in 1826, prominent aristocratic families of New Mexicans, such as the Chávezes, Armijos, Pereas and Oteros entered into the commerce along the trail, such that by 1843, traders from New Mexico and Chihuahua had become the majority of traders involved in the traffic of goods over the Santa Fe Trail.[5]

In 1835 Mexico City had sent Albino Pérez to govern the department of New Mexico as Jefe Politico (political chief or governor) and as commanding military officer. In 1837 the forces of Rio Arriba (the upper Rio Grande, i.e., northern New Mexico) rebelled against Pérez' enforcement of the recent Mexican constitution, new revenue laws taxing Santa Fe commerce and entertainment, and the large grants of New Mexico land to wealthy Mexicans. New Mexicans had grown to appreciate the relative freedoms of a frontier, remote from Mexico City. The rebels defeated and executed governor Albino Perez, but were later ousted by the forces of Rio Abajo (the lower Rio Grande, or southern New Mexico) led by Manuel Armijo.[6]

Conflict between Texas and Mexico

The Republic of Texas claimed Santa Fe as part of the territory north and east of the Rio Grande claimed by both Mexico and Texas following its secession from Mexico in 1836.

In 1841, a small military and trading expedition departed from Austin, Texas representing the Republic of Texas and their president Mirabeau B. Lamar. Their aim was to persuade the people of Santa Fe and New Mexico to relinquish control over the territory under dispute with Mexico, and over the associated Santa Fe Trail commerce. Having knowledge of the recent political disturbances, they believed that they might be welcomed by the rebellious faction in New Mexico. Known as the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the Texans encountered many difficulties and were subsequently captured by governor Armijo's Mexican army under less than honest negotiations. They were then subjected to harsh and austere treatment during a tortuous forced march to Mexico City, for trial and imprisonment.[7]

In 1842 Colonel William A. Christy wrote president of Texas, Sam Houston requesting support for a scheme by Charles Warfield to raise forces to overthrow the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and Chihuahua and return half of the spoils to the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston agreed, with the provision that the operation be held under the strictest secrecy. Charles was made a colonel and attempted to raise volunteers in Texas, St. Louis, and the southern Rockies for a Warfield Expedition. He recruited John McDaniel and a small band of men in the proximate vicinity of St. Louis, giving McDaniel the rank of a Texas captain. After Charles headed toward the Rockies with a companion, McDaniel led a robbery in the April, 1843 (in present-day Rice County, Kansas) of a sparsely manned Santa Fe Trail trading caravan, resulting in the murder of its leader Antonio José Chávez, the son of a former governor Francisco Xavier Chávez of New Mexico.[8] It was reported that Warfield was unaware of the crime, which later resulted in the execution of McDaniel and one accomplice, and in the imprisonment of those participants whom U.S. authorities were able to hunt down. The news media reported that Americans and Mexicans were outraged by the crime. Local merchants and citizens at the U.S. end of the Santa Fe Trail demanded justice and a return to the stable commerce that their economy had grown to depend upon.[5]

After the murder of Chávez, Warfield began limited military hostilities using recruits from the southern Rockies. He made an unprovoked attack on Mexican troops outside of Mora, New Mexico, leaving five dead. Warfield's horses were lost in Wagon Mound to the Mexican forces which had made chase, and after reaching Bent's Fort on foot, Warfield's men disbanded. In February, 1843 Colonel Jacob Snively had received a commission to intercept Mexican caravans along the Santa Fe Trail, similar to the commission received by Warfield the year prior. After disbanding the volunteers under his command, Warfield located and joined the 190 man Texas "Battalion of Invincibles," under the command of Snively. New Mexico governor Manuel Armijo led Mexican troops out of Santa Fe for the protection of the incoming caravans, but after the Invincibles wiped out an advanced party led by Captain Ventura Lovato, the governor retreated. Following this battle, Snively's force was reduced to little over 100 men due to resignations.[5] The Snively Expedition plan was to plunder Mexican merchant caravans on territory claimed by Texas, in retaliation for recent Texian executions and Mexican invasions, but it was quickly arrested and disarmed by United States escorting troops.[9] Captain Philip St. George Cooke allowed the Invincibles to return to Texas after disarming them.[5]

Mother of the railroad

In 1863, with all the political bickering over railroad legislation, entrepreneurs opened their pockets and set their sights on the American Southwest leading to the gradual construction east to west of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; the name eponymously reflecting the intentions of the founders, the expected eastern terminus to be in Atchison, Kansas.

Inside Kansas, the AT&SF roadbed roughly paralleled the Santa Fe Trail west of Topeka as it expanded between 1868 and 1874. When a railroad bridge was built across the Missouri River to connect eastern markets to the Dodge City cattle trail and Colorado coal mines, the railroad spurred the growth of Kansas City. Kansas City was on the opposite shore from Saint Joseph, Missouri, one of several trail head towns feeding settlers into the American West. Building the railway so that it extended westwards to destinations in and beyond the New Mexico border was delayed and kept the fledgling railroad gasping for cash. In a move to bootstrap their own base market, the railway began offering packaged "Shopping Excursion deals" to potential buyers desiring to look over a real estate parcel. The railroad began to discount such trips to visit its land offices and gave back the ticket price as part of the purchase price, if a sale was concluded.

The railroad's sale of its land granted by congress fostered growth of new towns and businesses along its route, which generated railway traffic and revenues. With this financial base, the railway extended west, gradually adding new connections through rougher west country along the western Trail. With the development of rail transport, traffic on the Trail soon dropped to merely local trade. In a sense, after World War I the trail was reborn; by the 1920s it gradually became paved automobile roads.

Route

The Santa Fe Trail Ruts at Fort Union.
The Santa Fe Trail highway sign in Cimarron, New Mexico.
End of the Santa Fe Trail marker on the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The eastern end of the trail was in the central Missouri town of Franklin on the north bank of the Missouri River. The route across Missouri first used by Becknell followed portions of the existing Osage Trace and the Medicine Trails. West of Franklin, the trail crossed the Missouri near Arrow Rock, after which it followed roughly the route of present-day U.S. Route 24. It passed north of Marshall, through Lexington to Fort Osage, then to Independence. Independence was also one of the historic "jumping off points" for the Oregon and California Trails.

West of Independence, it roughly followed the route of U.S. Route 56 from near the town of Olathe to the western border of Kansas. It enters Colorado, cutting across the southeast corner of the state before entering New Mexico. The section of the trail between Independence and Olathe was also used by immigrants on the California and Oregon Trails, which branched off to the northwest near Gardner, Kansas.

From Olathe, the trail passed through the towns of Baldwin City, Burlingame, and Council Grove, then swung west of McPherson to the town of Lyons. West of Lyons the trail followed nearly the route of present-day Highway 56 to Great Bend. Ruts in the earth made from the trail are still visible in several locations (Ralph's Ruts are visible in aerial photos at (38°21′35″N 98°25′20″W / 38.35959264°N 98.42225502°W / 38.35959264; -98.42225502).[10] At Great Bend, the trail encountered the Arkansas River. Branches of the trail followed both sides of the river upstream to Dodge City and Garden City.

West of Garden City in southwestern Kansas the trail splits into two branches. One of the branches, called the Mountain Route or the Upper Crossing through Raton Pass (of the Arkansas River) [11]:93[12]:133 continued to follow the Arkansas upstream in southeastern Colorado to the town of La Junta. At La Junta, the trail continued south into New Mexico to Fort Union at Watrous.

The other main branch, called the Cimarron Cutoff or Cimarron Crossing or Middle Crossing[11]:93[12]:133[13]:144 cut southwest across the Cimarron Desert (also known as the Waterscrape or La Jornada[13]:148) to the valley of the Cimarron River near the town of Ulysses and Elkhart then continued toward Boise City, Oklahoma, to Clayton, New Mexico, joining up with northern branch at Fort Union. This route was generally very hazardous because it had very little water.[14] In fact, the Cimarron River was one of the only sources of water along this branch of the trail.

From Watrous, the reunited branches continued southward to Santa Fe.

Part of this route has been designated a National Scenic Byway.

Challenges

Travelers faced many hardships along the Santa Fe Trail. The trail was a challenging 900 miles (1,400 km) of arid plains, desert, and mountains. The natural climate was and is continental; with very hot and dry summers, coupled with long and bitterly cold winters. The general lack of precipitation makes fresh water scarce; and the high steppe-like plains are nearly treeless. Water flows in the Pecos, Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian rivers that drain the region vary by 90 or more percent in their flows during an average year. Also, on this trail unlike the Oregon trail, there was a serious danger of Native American attacks, for neither the Comanches nor the Apaches of the southern high plains tolerated trespassers. In 1825, Congress voted for federal protection for the Santa Fe Trail, even though much of it lay in the Mexican territory. Lack of food and water also made the trail very risky. Weather conditions, like huge lightning storms, gave the travelers even more difficulty. If a storm developed, there was often no place to take shelter and the livestock could get spooked. Rattlesnakes often posed a threat, and many people died due to snakebite. The caravan size increased later on to prevent Indian raids. The travelers also packed more oxen instead of mules because the Indians did not want to risk raiding the caravans only for some oxen.

Historic preservation

Segments of this trail in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[15] The longest clearly identifiable section of the trail, Santa Fe Trail Remains, near Dodge City, Kansas, is listed as a National Historic Landmark.[16]

Notable features

Santa Fe Trail marker in Coolidge, Kansas
Santa Fe Trail Ruts, west of Larned, Kansas
Santa Fe Trail marker at the Cuerno Verde Rest Area, Colorado
Missouri[17]
Kansas[17]

Mountain Route towards Colorado

Colorado[17]

Mountain Route

Cimarron Route thru Kansas towards Oklahoma

New Mexico[17]

Mountain Route

Cimarron Route

Joint route

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Hämäläinen, Pekka (2008). The Comanche Empire. Yale University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 978-0-300-12654-9.
  2. ↑ Magoffin, Susan Shelby; Lamar, Howard R: (1982). Drumm, Stella Madeleine, ed. Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846–1847. Copyright 1926, 1962 by Yale University Press. USA: Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-8116-5.
  3. ↑ Peters 1996, pp. 55.
  4. ↑ Founding date after the Battle of Pierre's Hole from consequent discovery of South Pass (1832) providing the last key bit of needed navigable landscape by the Astorians. The majority of the road was well known to the American Fur Company since 1808.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Marc Simmons, Murder on the Santa Fe Trail: an International Incident, 1843 The University of Texas El Paso (1987)
  6. ↑ Ray John de Aragon, Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy Pan American Publishing Company (1978)
  7. ↑ George Wilkins Kendall, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition (1884)
  8. ↑ Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 1806-1848 - Stephen Garrison Hyslop - Google Boeken. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  9. ↑ "REPUBLIC OF TEXAS | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)". Tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  10. ↑ "Aerial Photos Topo Maps of Santa Fe Trail Ruts and Sites". Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  11. 1 2 Duffus, R. (1972). The Santa Fe Trail. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-0235-9.
  12. 1 2 Vestal, Stanley (1996). The Old Santa Fe Trail. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9615-2.
  13. 1 2 Stocking, Hobart (1971). The Road to Santa Fe. New York: Hastings House Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8038-6314-9.
  14. ↑ Samuel Gance, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2013. p.115.
  15. ↑ Gallagher, Joseph J., Alice Edwards, Lachlan F. Blair, and Hugh Davidson (March 8, 1993). "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination Form: Historic Resources of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821–1880" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  16. ↑ "National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL): Santa Fe Trail Remains". Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Santa Fe trail, Official Map and Guide; National Park Service; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; 1997

Further reading

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